Trump investigation designed to 'impeach or embarrass' president, furious leading Republican claims amid fury at Manafort sentence
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Your support makes all the difference.President Donald Trump has again attacked the “witch hunt hoax” embroiling his administration following the sentencing of ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, declaring the outcome proved “no collusion” with Russia as Democrats decried the lenience of Manafort’s 47-month sentence as a “miscarriage of justice”.
Departing for Alabama to tour the state’s devastation by a recent tornado, the president found time to denounce his opposition as an “anti-Israel, anti-Jewish” party over Congresswoman Ilhan Omar‘s comments on the influence of Israeli interest groups in Washington, despite the House having passed a resolution condemning prejudice of all kinds by 402 to 23.
Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins, has sent a scathing letter to its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, attacking the panel’s motivations in investigating the president for abuse of power, saying: “Either you intend to impeach the president, for alleged crimes that have yet to be discovered, or you intend to embarrass him.”
Manafort, was sentenced on Thursday by a federal judge to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians. The charges were unrelated to his work on Mr Trump’s campaign or the focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The president repeated on Friday as he departed the White House to survey tornado damage in Alabama that Manafort’s case “had nothing to do with Russia.”
It has been a "very, very tough time" for Manafort, he added.
In Alabama, the president signed Bibles at a local Baptist church and took photos with survivors of the deadly tornado outbreak that killed nearly two dozen people.
Mr Trump used a felt pen to scratch out his signature on the cover of a little girl’s Bible, which is decorated with pink camouflage, and first lady Melania Trump then added her signature.
The president and first lady surveyed the damage on Friday, meeting with local officials and victims. They also visited a makeshift disaster relief center set up at the church.
Additional reporting by AP. Check out The Independent's live coverage from Friday below.
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Donald Trump has tweeted the following message in support of Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who announced she was leaving the White House administration to serve as the president of the University of Texas at El Paso.
“Congratulations to Heather Wilson, who is the sole finalist to become the next President of University of Texas at El Paso effective September 1, 2019,” the president wrote on Twitter.
“Heather has done an absolutely fantastic job,” he continued. “I know she will be equally great in the very important world of higher education. A strong thank you to Heather for her service.”
Donald Trump and Melania Trump are touring an Alabama memorial where 23 victims of the state’s deadly tornadoes have been remembered.
The president and first lady spent time standing in front of each memorial, occasionally pointing towards notes and flowers left on the floor for those who were killed in the tornadoes.
A crowd at Providence Church in Alabama applauded as Donald Trump posed for a photograph with a 12-year-old volunteer named Gatlin, according to local reporters on the scene.
Donald Trump is now signing bibles for Alabama residents at the local Baptist church, a move that has already sparked backlash online.
"A lot of critics will grouse about this, but it should be said in Trump’s defense that he has always been consistently in favor of putting his name on bestsellers he didn’t write," one user wrote on Twitter.
As Donald Trump surveys the damage caused by a series of tornadoes in Alabama, Mike Pence has arrived in Kentucky where he is meeting with Matt Bevin, the state’s conservative gun governor.
The vice president celebrated Mr Bevin for “working tirelessly for the great people of the Bluegrass State” and claims the politician supports Mr Trump’s “pro-growth, pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment agenda!”
Donald Trump has retweeted a series of tweets posted by Paul Sperry, which claim the media is allegedly colluding with Democrats from the previous White House administration and other government agencies.
The tweets included a slate of misleading claims and outright falsities. One also called a company owned by Michael Cohen’s father-in-law “shady” and accused him of being a “loan shark in the same taxicab medallion biz as Cohen.”
This concludes today's live coverage surrounding Donald Trump's visit to Alabama and the slate of scandals plaguing his White House.
Read below for The Independent's coverage from Friday and be sure to check back next week for new developments.
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